Ping, Tracert, Telnet, Whois

There is a quick way to find out whether a URL is valid and has not passed away (Ping), and also to see how complex the route from you to that URL is and where the delays are (Tracert). There is also a complete Telnet language available, one of whose commands can be used to find out who a website belongs to (Whois).

PING on my computer is set up to send a packet four times and measure the time it takes for the round trip. Worldwide a good figure off-peak seems to be well under half a second. At peak times you may never get a result at all, and this is the reason why search engines sometimes delete your website, thinking it has gone away.

TRACERT is interesting in that it shows just how many hops are necessary from anywhere to anywhere-else. And the devious route that can be followed if the most direct route is busy. There are additional steps if you have to find the IP address in a Directory Name Server; sometimes it is stored from a previous access request.

Users of Windows 95 should have two programs in the Windows sub-directory. These are PING.EXE and TRACERT.EXE These run under MS-DOS, not under windows. So to run them you have to use START and select Programs and MS-DOS Prompt. On my PC I have set up an icon to C:\windows\command.com which does the same thing.

When the MS-DOS window is on the screen with its prompt, key in either PING or TRACERT, a space, and the URL required to investigate.
Example: PING www.waller.co.uk

Here are some samples:

Microsoft(R) Windows 95
   (C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1995.

C:\WINDOWS>ping www.waller.co.uk

Pinging tower.netlink.co.uk [194.88.140.9] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 194.88.140.9: bytes=32 time=488ms TTL=246
Reply from 194.88.140.9: bytes=32 time=374ms TTL=246
Reply from 194.88.140.9: bytes=32 time=369ms TTL=246
Reply from 194.88.140.9: bytes=32 time=354ms TTL=246

C:\WINDOWS>tracert www.waller.co.uk

Tracing route to tower.netlink.co.uk [194.88.140.9]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1   388 ms   395 ms   394 ms  s14.ap06.dialin.global.net.uk [195.147.208.14]
  2   383 ms   297 ms   299 ms  fe1-0-llb-x-many.r1.ap06.dialin.global.net.uk [195.147.208.59]
  3   386 ms   296 ms   298 ms  fd2-0-llb-x-l-many.PS3.core.rtr.xara.net [195.147.242.65]
  4   383 ms   295 ms   289 ms  hs4-1-llb-x-ps3.TH26.core.rtr.xara.net [195.147.240.10]
  5   384 ms   296 ms   396 ms  hs6-1-1-llb-x-th26.TH7.core.rtr.xara.net [194.143.164.34]
  6   289 ms   496 ms   297 ms  LINX-de0-barkley.Telehouse.router.COLT.NET [195.66.225.49]
  7   378 ms   396 ms   396 ms  1-ATM6-0-0-super-grover.CTF.router.COLT.NET [212.74.64.129]
  8   384 ms   297 ms   395 ms  gf000-the-count.access.UK.COLT.NET [212.74.64.27]
  9   384 ms   396 ms   301 ms  Netlink.customer.COLT.NET [195.110.67.102]
 10   393 ms   396 ms   295 ms  tower.netlink.co.uk [194.88.140.9]

Trace complete.

C:\WINDOWS>

TELNET enables you to change settings on your website. I seldom use it myself. But there is a neat use of Telnet to find out who websites are owned by. There are easier ways using normal internet browsing using the addresses of the registration authorities directly.

But here goes for .com addresses:

Microsoft(R) Windows 95
   (C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1995.

C:\WINDOWS>telnet rs-internic.net

and when given the Telnet window:

whois goring-by-sea.com

and all that is known about this account is displayed.

Website by: Richard Waller
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URL: http://www.waller.co.uk/ping.htm